So, uhm, this is a stupid question. Apologize in advance.

Trying to transfer files from an old laptop to a new desktop. Laptop has Windows XP, desktop has Vista. Both are hardwired (Cat5) to the Belkin wireless router....wireless is disabled on both.

I have ensured that I assigned names to both, and changed the workgroups so they match. I disabled the firewall on both, and set shared folders on them.

Looking in network places on the laptop, I don't see the desktop. Vice versa is true for the desktop (Can't see the laptop).

So, is it an issue with XP vs. Vista, or am I missing something small/overlooking something? I've restarted both computers/router/etc. multiple times in an effort to fix, but nothing.

Thanks in advance!

10/22/2007 12:43:29 AM

Connect directly to an IP ...

ie, type in Run ...

//192.168.1.2/

See what you come up with.

...Obviously use the IP of the machine you're trying to connect to.

[Edited on October 22, 2007 at 12:50 AM. Reason : ...]

10/22/2007 12:50:14 AM

that will work or you can upgrade xp to the vista networking protocols

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTMyNywxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
i think its the last one

Quote :

" Tip 12: Make XP computers show up in your network map. Vista uses a new protocol named Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) to display a network “map” of all computers in a network, but the protocol is only in Vista, so XP computers do not show up in this map. Microsoft has generously released the software for XP, and it must be installed on an XP machine for it to show up in the Vista map. Click here to download the software for Windows XP SP2. Conclusion There you have it; some quick and easy tips to make Vista easier to use and more effective. This was not meant to be an all-encompassing “every tip in the world” article, but a short and sweet how-to on making Vista more efficient and user-friendly. We hope you saw some things you can use, and as always, feel free to comment or leave your own tips on our forums."

10/22/2007 7:57:32 AM

Alright, computer inept guy is back again...

...so, I downloaded that program (thanks for the link, btw) and it ran but it said it couldn't complete installation. Deleted the file, redownloaded, reran...same issue. Corrupt file, possibly? (More likely, something wrong with my computer).

Anyway, I'm not sure how to do the other method. I ran IPconfig and could get my IP....but I went to my Vista PC and am unsure how to "connect" - can you provide any more insight.....???

Thanks,
Tech-Inept.

10/22/2007 12:23:26 PM

I don't believe you need to do any of this to get xp and vista machines to see each other. In our apartment we have 3 vista machines, and 5 xp machines, and there's never an issue seeing any computer on the network. Simply plug and play.

10/22/2007 12:26:24 PM

In that case, any idea what I'm doing incorrectly?

Mike

10/22/2007 1:06:48 PM

i think i had a similar experience that you're having about 2 months ago. I went to a friends house to help them configure their new Vista desktop with their existing XP Desktop and Laptop. They just wanted simple file sharing between all 3 computers.

The short story is: i never got it to work. I simply could not configure Vista to even see the XP machines, and even when XP could see the Vista machine, i never got it to be able to browse files on the Vista machine.
The long story is here: message_topic.aspx?topic=488431&page=2#10624557

That was my first experience with Vista, and it was a bad one.
My 2nd experience with Vista was a couple weeks ago when my mother-in-law got a new HP Laptop with Vista. I took it back to her house where out of the box it connected right in and worked flawlessly on their network, with 1 Vista, 2 XPs, and 1 Mac.

So who knows..... it just seems like a real mixed bag to me.

10/22/2007 1:38:29 PM

^^For my method, let's say the IP on your XP box is 192.168.1.2 ... go to your Vista box and hit "Win-R", (that's your Windows key on your keyboard, looks like the Ctrl/Alt keys but with a Windows logo) and you should be looking at text box, type in, "//192.168.1.2/" then hit Enter.

Assuming you setup filesharing properly on your XP box as you said, you should see those shared folders now.

If this isn't the case, tell us what you see.

[Edited on October 22, 2007 at 2:09 PM. Reason : use forward slashes //]

10/22/2007 1:54:17 PM

//computernamehere still works even if you can't "see it" on the network

10/22/2007 2:03:36 PM

Wow i didn't know this many people had issues with it. You just have to enable file sharing on each machine and it works. We never ran into issues at our apartment, and any new system i've put vista on has no issues with networking with XP machines. I mean you might have to join the workgroup, but that's the most i've ever had to do with a vista machine aside from enabling file sharing.

Firewalls shouldn't have anything to do with it. Sounds like a router issue maybe? We're using a cheap D-link currently, and I haven't run into any issues on the Linksys routers i've tried either.

Are you sure you're looking in the right spot? Right-click explore, then network? I know that's an obvious statment, but who knows.

10/22/2007 3:51:05 PM

hey guys, the slashes need to be "\\computernamehere\sharename", not "//computernamehere/sharename"...

Windows uses backslashes, mostly *nixes and OS X are the forwardslashing syntaxers.

10/22/2007 3:53:25 PM

I don't know what your doing different but until you re-config network protocols it shouldn't work i mean it will work but they won't be visible.
i mean i have a drive on my xp machine mounted as a network drive on my vista machine but still it will not show on my network.

10/22/2007 4:04:37 PM

^

Quote :

"until you re-config network protocols "

What do you mean?

We just installed vista ultimate 64 bit on my new roommates pc we built for him, and we booted it right up and it was able to see my vista 64 machine, and my other roommates vista 64 machine, and all the xp machines in the apartment. Print and file sharing worked fine.

You shouldn't have to mess with anything other than maybe workgroup and turn on file sharing.

Right after we plugged into the router we were able to bring up the network and see and access all the vista/xp machines:


[Edited on October 22, 2007 at 4:30 PM. Reason : .]

10/22/2007 4:08:57 PM

Alright, no such luck.

So, I made sure that both computers had unique names and were in the same workgroup. Tried setting up home networks through the wizards, and that didn't work.

Most recently, I took Sumfoo's advice and tried the //192.xxx etc. advice, and that yielded nothing. Also tried//"computername". It searched, but couldn't find anything. It gives me the message "No items match your search".

Any other thoughts?

Thanks all for the help.

10/22/2007 7:46:18 PM

BTW, pinged the IP address of the XP box from the Vista command prompt and it worked fine...not sure if that tells us anything other than that they're connected to the network.

[Edited on October 22, 2007 at 7:50 PM. Reason : dur]

10/22/2007 7:49:44 PM

this isn't a stupid question 2L8IWON

windows networking is one of the sorriest pieces of shit on earth

10/22/2007 11:44:51 PM

yeah, like i said..... i've only had 2 experiences ever with Vista.

One was a complete networking disaster. I never got it to work. The owners ended up returning the computer last week (they're buying a Mac next week )

The second worked like a charm. Plug and play, no problems.

10/22/2007 11:54:10 PM

Any updates on why some people have problems and others have none?

11/15/2007 10:05:06 PM

None, but we're hoping SP1 fixes it.

11/16/2007 11:16:12 AM

Never got this stupid thing resolved. Went out and bought one of those horribly overpriced transfer cables...sigh.

1/30/2008 1:19:24 PM

create an account on both machines that is in the administrators group and has a password. To make it easy make it the same name, same pw.

go to start -> run and type in \\ipaddress\driveletter$

for example if you wanted to get to the xp machine from the vista one and the xp machine's ip was 192.168.1.1 you would put in
\\192.168.1.1\c$
in the runbox/search thingy in vista. This would bring up the c drive of the xp machine. Vice versa for vista from xp.

Heres how this works. Windows has administrative shares setup for each drive. They're in the format driveletter$ (c$, d$, e$, etc...). If you try to access one of these shares the computer will ask you to log in with the username and password of an administrator on the computer you're trying to connect to. If the account doesn't have a password you cant log in remotely.

Windows will automatically try to login with your current logged in credentials as well. So if you are logged in as Administrator on the local machine and your password is 'password' and the remote machine has an Administrator account with the same password then it should just go right to the share.

1/30/2008 2:19:00 PM

the first post put the slashes wrong.. i haven't read the thread, but it should be run, \\192.168.10.1 or whatever the IP is of the other computer you want to access

1/30/2008 3:31:37 PM

Yea all the help is in this thread, but all the slashes should be backslashes for Windows \\ not forward slashes like in *nix // .... sorry for that confusion but we were corrected earlier too.

1/30/2008 5:30:45 PM